POST 400!!!!!!! (good gravy)

-> just got back from nice evening w/family, concluding w/nighttime run on the bluffs at panorama pk (dramatic pic from mrs'melinda on flickr is pretty much what it looked like, tho it was darker & more mysterious-glimmery). in my probably-too-cynical view, this city's not done enough to make this place an interesting & diverse & culturally-rich hometown of which to be proud, but in my adult life "they" HAVE installed some niceties that don't involve conspicuous consumption or debt incurrence, such as the bike path, the beale library, CALM, a few of the city pks (i save my greatest happiness for when "they" restore hart pk)... but the nicest nicety of all, i think, is what they did to "the bluffs." a rough guide smear of bksfld derisively commented that the only vw in this town overlooks oil fields; you could smell disdain steaming from the ink. my thought: of COURSE it is, city slicker! & to quote brian, you ain't from around here, are ya?? overlooking "the (oil) dale" & opposite the aging mansions of panorama drive are the bluffs, which served as the old makeout spot/lover's lane for generations of locals. at these bluffs, no doubt scores of young females (me being only one) were embarrassed more than once w/beaux when busted insert latin phrase by cops in the middle of the night. it was just dirt then, dirt that picked up & blew around & made people sick when the dust storms hit, a place if you had a gal or guy you just NEEDED, yet nothing to look at, in fact, a real eyesore. yet, i was offended when they turned the bluffs into a pk. the triumph of yuppiedom!! where will kids go now to fool around??? (i underestimated the ingenuity of hormone-driven youths, who certainly continue to find abandoned shopping centers & dirt fields in freshman attempts to perdure the specie... you gotta admire such tenacity, i spose.)
-> but you should see this pk now! it is a true jewel. the weather's changed & evenings now are wonderful california balmy-cool, but even when summer nights were 100 plus, the meandering path teemed w/families, couples, work associates strolling, laughing, stumbling, jogging, pecking & cooing. i say, now that my knee's stopped jerking on the whole topic, it's wonderful that our community has this treasure.
-> a poem about travel & obligation comes to mind, & tho tonight i had no obligation except to get my carcass home & to bed, i paraphrase: the bluffs are lovely dark & deep, and i have promises to keep, and miles to go before i sleep, and miles to go before i sleep. (actually, it's only 3.65 miles (approx) out & back, from manor/panorama to panorama/alta vista.)
-> if you're here &'ve never tried it, hit the bluffs some cool evening to see a lovely side of bakingfield that might help you feel a bit less hopeless about this place.